Three Things

Welcome to Three Thing Thursday, where I share three thoughts and encourage you to do the same.  Three is merely a suggestion, there are no hard and fast rules here.

I'll begin.

1. Yesterday, in preparation for Blog Fest 2013, I spent five solid hours dejunktifying my upstairs bedrooms (two of which belong to my teenagers, who evidently love living in squalor mountains of old school papers and half-empty water bottles).

2.  Do not consult your dictionaries, dear readers because dejunktify is so a word. I've been using it for years now, especially in To Do lists for my children. "1. Dejunktify your rooms. 2. See #1. 3. I said dejunktify, please."  Evidently they're unclear on the precise meaning of this word, because the amount of dejunktifying I did yesterday tells me they've not focused on it since they were born in a very long time.

3. I absolutely adore surprises, and yesterday after the marathon dejunktifying session and an away cross country meet (where daughter broke her own personal record!), I dragged up the front steps to find a package from a good friend I met through this blog.  It contained Kona coffee, a candle, wine, and cocktail napkins that will be perfect for this weekend's festivities. Have I mentioned how much I love surprises?

That's it from me.  Now it's your turn to share three thoughts.

Whatever is on your mind.

Anything at all.

Three Things

Sailboats on Queens Creek

On Thursdays if I have energy enough to post, I usually share three (or sometimes more) thoughts which tend to be unrelated. And I encourage you to do the same. The more off the wall the better. Just let your mind roam freely and share whatever happens to be passing through.

Here are my three things:

1. Remember when I went crabbing a while back? (Click here or here  or here if you don't.) Most of the pictures from that trip are posted on my Facebook account. The publisher of Chesapeake Style magazine saw them and asked if she could use one for a future cover. Of course she could! Click here for the on-line version or grab a copy at the newspaper stand of one of our local merchants.


2. Last night when I arrived home from work, there were multiple surprises awaiting me. I absolutely love surprises, live for them even--especially when they don't involve ant infestations or lawn mowers that spontaneously decide not to start when the grass is knee high. One was a package filled with goodies that included two bags of very exceptional coffee. The other involved work being done that I could never complete myself. I am exceptionally fortunate to have very kind, very generous friends. THANK YOU. Just thank you.


3. Friday the temperature is predicted to be close to 100 degrees. I hope to be in the air conditioned Mathews Memorial Library,  the Chesapeake Room in particular, researching something for the person mentioned last week who is piecing together a family puzzle dating to the 1600s. Fascinating stuff. Plus it gives me a valid reason to spend hours rummaging through the microfilm and books at that library, which believe it or not I love . (I am a cheap date very easily entertained. Public libraries are like amusement parks to me.)


That's all I have to report from this neck of the woods. Please feel free to share three, four, six or more thoughts relating to what's going on in your world.  Whatever you want, anything at all.

Sailboats on Queens Creek.  Still.
Just closer up this time.

Surprises

I just love surprises, of any description. To me some of the best times in life are those which are not planned or anticipated. Unless we're talking about finding a caterpillar on one's pillow, which is exactly what happened to me last night. No lie.

Over a week ago, I went to Mobjack to photograph some churches, an old school and a wharf. Along the way were many unexpected scenes starving for attention, including this building which sits right next to the Bohannon post office.

Since traffic is nonexistent light in this neck of the woods, I pulled over across the road and started taking pictures. This window was particularly charming; the curtains, unexpected.

Someone who's been here a while can tell me what this place was, but I'm going to guess a filling station or a store. Maybe both. Maybe neither.

Regardless, it was an unexpected gift on my photographic journey.

Just like Friday last, when I was supposed to go to the library to do some research. The sunshine was brilliant, as it was in the shots above, so I never made it to the library just had to sneak in a few pictures. Except I wasn't sure where to go. I never am.

So I just drove on through the Court House and arbitrarily made a left at the Convalescent Center where I'll be living in a few short years. The road took me past the Tabernacle and then twisted this way and that.

All of a sudden, while debating which way to turn at an intersection, I noticed a man working on a tractor in the field and recognized him as Mr. C., someone I've loved from afar known for decades.

He jumped over the ditch as I came to a stop in the middle of the road. Leaning in to my open passenger-side window he began a conversation which lasted a good ten minutes. No, it was a great ten minutes. We talked. We laughed. We reminisced. And then we laughed some more. I could have stayed there in the middle of the road all day long. Talking and laughing.

Although I could write a book on our conversation, and maybe I will some day, my favorite part went like so:

Mr. C: Where are you headed this fine mornin'?

CBW: I don't know exactly. Wherever the wind blows me.

Mr. C: That's the very best place to go.

Indeed it is.

I'm almost always very pleasantly surprised.